but if the cloud was not lifted up, then they would not journey further until the day it was lifted up.

Then the Lord became angry with Moses, and he said, “What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

Take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out the door of his house until morning.

When Pharaoh released the people, God did not lead them by the way to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, “Lest the people change their minds and return to Egypt when they experience war.”

He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Whatever you want to bake, bake today; whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”

“If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides.

Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live.”

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss.

and the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground.

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been destroyed from the earth.

I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: both he and his servants hardened their hearts.

He said to them, “The Lord will need to be with you if I release you and your dependents! Watch out! Trouble is right in front of you!

The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.”

The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted, and so they plundered Egypt.

When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,

then you must give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. Every firstling of a beast that you have – the males will be the Lord’s.